World Trade Center Fence to Come Down, Marking 13 Years of Progress

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The World Trade Center site experienced numerous milestones last year, and now the blue fence that cordoned the 16-acre site off for the last 13 years will reportedly come down this year to show them all off.

A portion of the fence that surrounds the World Trade Center site (Photo: AP)

The process of removing the fence, which will begin as early as May, will allow for a free flow of pedestrian traffic between the National September 11 Memorial & Museum and the rest of Lower Manhattan.

“It’s something I have been looking forward to for a long time,” Sept. 11 memorial designer Michael Arad told The Wall Street Journal. “The design of the memorial has always been about connecting the site back to the city and making this part of the city whole again.”

The removal of the fence will incorporate the memorial plaza, named “Reflecting Absence,” into daily life, creating more of a park-like atmosphere than the sequestered site had afforded the city.

“It hasn’t been part of normal New York City life for a while,” said Joe Lincks, 47, an insurance underwriter who has worked in Lower Manhattan for 25 years, while President of the National September 11 Memorial & Museum Joe Daniels told WSJ that he is “100 percent” sure the fence will be torn away this year.